^9:6It happened that some men¹² who were ceremonially defiled¹³ by the dead body of a man¹⁴ could not keep¹⁵ the Passover on that day, so they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day. ^9:7And those men said to him, “We are ceremonially defiled by the dead body of a man; why are we kept back from offering the Lord’s offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?”

Read in Logos

Footnotes

12 In the Hebrew text the noun has no definite article, and so it signifies “some” or “certain” men.
13 The meaning, of course, is to be ceremonially unclean, and therefore disqualified from entering the sanctuary.
14 Or “a human corpse” (so , ). So also in v. 7; cf. v. 10.
15 This clause begins with the vav (ו) conjunction and negative before the perfect tense. Here is the main verb of the sentence: They were not able to observe the Passover. The first part of the verse provides the explanation for their problem.

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

And there were certain men who were unclean through touching a dead body, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. And those men said to him, “We are unclean through touching a dead body. Why are we kept from bringing the Lord’s offering at its appointed time among the people of Israel?”

NIVNew International Version (2011)

But some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body. So they came to Moses and Aaron that same day and said to Moses, “We have become unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be kept from presenting the Lord’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?”

CSBChristian Standard Bible

But there were some men who were unclean because of a human corpse, so they could not observe the Passover on that day. These men came before Moses and Aaron the same day and said to him, “We are unclean because of a human corpse. Why should we be excluded from presenting the Lord’s offering at its appointed time with the other Israelites?”

NLTNew Living Translation

But some of the men had been ceremonially defiled by touching a dead body, so they could not celebrate the Passover that day. They came to Moses and Aaron that day and said, “We have become ceremonially unclean by touching a dead body. But why should we be prevented from presenting the Lord’s offering at the proper time with the rest of the Israelites?”

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

And it happened, men who were unclean by a dead person were not able to perform the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. And those men said to him, “Although we are unclean by a dead person, why are we hindered from presenting the offering of Yahweh at its appointed time in the midst of the Israelites?”

KJV 1900King James Version

And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day: And those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of the Lord in his appointed season among the children of Israel?

Public Domain